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Tom Watson standing down. So many relative moderates on both sides are going.

Deputy leader. Nice timing. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Over the next three travel updates, up to the end of February, WHO continued to advise against travel restrictions, even as evidence mounted over the potential worldwide catastrophe that may result from the coronavirus.
And that remains the position today. As the infections increased, deaths mounted, WHO’s travel advice remained essentially unmoved..

Here’s a confession. I don’t think I’ve ever empty-chaired one of my TV guests before. I have said to camera: “Joe Bloggs had said they would be here, but they’ve not turned up.” But I’ve never actually taken a shot of an empty chair where my guest should have been sitting.

Yesterday was different and for myriad reasons. Here’s why.

I’ve just started hosting a new breakfast show from the heart of Westminster. It’s great timing given the announcement of an election. An opportunity for our Sky News viewers to see politicians being held to account for their promises and policies. So far we have hosted senior Tories, Labour, Lib Dems, DUP, SNP, Greens since launching last month.

Yesterday it was the foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s turn. He pulled out of the interview for logistical reasons the night before. Annoying but understandable. We were told by the Conservative press office that no other senior Tory was available to appear on the only breakfast TV show broadcast live from the heart of Westminster.

Imagine our surprise when we saw none other than James Cleverly, the party chairman himself, appear on one of our rival channels from the exact same building we were in. One of my team cantered two floors down to ask if he would also appear on our programme.

By this time he was already settling in to do a second down-the-line interview for another TV broadcaster. When he had finished we asked Mr Cleverly if he would appear on Sky. His aide whipped out the schedule of interviews planned — there were many — and agreed to a Sky News slot at 8:50. My programme broadcasts from 7 to 9am. It was tight but we were happy to make it work. There was much to speak to the government spokesman about.

The Grenfell incident when a cabinet minister had been apparently derogatory about the victims — backed up by a colleague; calls for the Welsh secretary to resign over the conduct of a former aide; a row over whether the transition period will be extended past the end of 2020; a different row over attempts to get officials to cost Labour policies; the row over the failure to publish the report into Russian interference. Oh, and the prime minister comparing Jeremy Corbyn to Stalin.
As Mr Cleverly and his aide went from studio to studio within the Millbank building being interviewed by broadcasters “remotely” back to their headquarters in other parts of the country, we waited patiently for our promised slot of 8:50.

It’s important to hold politicians to account hence my employer’s commitment to leaders’ debates. And of course let’s not forget it was Sky News that threatened to empty chair the party leaders in this very newspaper that began the successful campaign for televised leaders’ debates at the 2010 general election — just as we are now proposing a three-way debate between Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson.

Anyway, just before Mr Cleverly was due to be seated in the chair next to me one of my team came forlornly into the studio to report that we’d been told he was no longer available. Mr C was not 15 feet away in the Sky News radio studio preparing to be interviewed by talkRADIO, remotely.

Moments later we were in a commercial break and I momentarily left my seat to pop next door and chat to the chairman. I asked him whether he would be appearing on my show. He pointed to his aide. His aide said it was no longer possible. I reverted to Mr Cleverly and said you can overrule that decision. He said it wasn’t possible.

I told him if he didn’t appear on my show to answer very real questions that needed to be answered then I would empty chair him. Both the chairman and the aide said in unison that I couldn’t. I said: just watch me.

Since then, there have been more than a million views of me empty-chairing James Cleverly on Twitter and the “chair” has its own social media account. It’s going to be a long election campaign folks.

I'm not sure I grasp the concept of empty-chairing. Is it like they introduce someone who was supposed to be there but isn't and the questions get asked anyway?

Its essentially to embarrass them and show the viewers someone has bottled out of facing questioning and during this interview there was a lot to cover (Rees-Mogg saying people died in a burning Tower due to lack of common sense, Boris comparing Corbyn to Stalin and murdering people, The Tories doctoring a video of a Labour MP being interviewed and passing it off as fact for starters). So Cleverly agreed to appear then pulled out at the last moment and Burley is a horrible journo at the best of times, so she nailed him for it. She essentially used up the time allocated for the interview by pointing out he wasn't there (a lot) and these are the things he is avoiding answering.

My best memory of Kay burley,is her nearly getting lynched while reporting the April Jones case in Machynlleth,large crowd of locals,she announces that April has been confirmed dead they've found a body,we now go live to Aprils parents for their reaction,crowd took it badly,copper in charge had that WTF? Look on his face and had to organise a cordon around Burley and get her into the sky van and away,Sky sent someone else to cover the story after that

Oh, and just to add, well into the first week of campaigning and he still hasn't given a proper press conference yet. They're hiding him away like they did for the leadership contest, as they know how blatantly shit he is.

I'm just saying that Rowley Birkin was blithering on about how good free movement is (as well as single market access), so why does he want it to be taken away? Surely governments tend to retain things that they think are "great"?

Blair won in 2005 after allowing free movement to nationals of new EU countries

In 2004 the EU expanded to include eight new countries. The Accession Treaty in 2003 gave member states the right to restrict (ie ignore Freedom of Movement) for a maximum of seven years. It must be said the 'chickens had not come to roost in 2005 although it was not until 2010 when Gordon Brown was apologising for calling Gillian Duffy a bigot over her concerns over immigration that the tide turned.